right new on "andrea mitchell reports" -- preparing for 2016 a week before the supreme court hears arguments on same-sex marriage. hillary clinton today endorses gay unions. >> lgbt americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends. our loved ones. and they are full and equal citizens and deserve the rights

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of citizenship. that includes marriage. gop soul-searching. republicans try to find out what went wrong in 2012. >> there's no one reason we lost. our message was weak, our ground game was insufficient. we weren't inclusive. we were behind in both data and digital, and our primary and debate process needed improvement. so there's no one solution, there's a long list of them. but is this their blueprint for victory? >> mr. president, we admit it, you won. accept it. now step away from the teleprompter and do your job. >> if standing for liberty and standing for the constitution makes you a whacko bird, then count me a proud whacko bird.

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>> more background checks? dandy idea, mr. president, should have started with yours. >> bon voyage, president obama prepares for his first trip to israel since becoming president. before departing tomorrow, some unfinished business, tapping a new labor secretary. >> today i'm proud to nominate a leader to carry on those efforts, as america's next secretary of labor, tom perez. vice president biden in rome, to lead the u.s. delegation at pope francis' inaugural mass. and prince champling to the rescue, after kate gets her heel stuck in a storm grate, the parents-to-be, are they on the same page when it comes to their first child? word is kate wants a boy, and william is hoping for a girl. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington today. and former secretary of state and first lady, hillary clinton,

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today took the public step that we have seen from president obama, from vice president biden and even from republican senator rob portman. clinton saying that equality for lgbt americans includes the right to marry. joining me now for our daily fix, ruth marcus, editorial columnist for the "washington post." we've seen this evolution and clearly, hillary clinton as secretary clinton was forward-leaning as far as spousal benefits, partner benefits at the state department. but this is is a clear an obvious step. what she signaling? >> i think what she's signaling is what we've, the other folks that you've mentioned, is that support for gay marriage is now, pardon the phrase, going to be a litmus test in the democratic party. i'm almost thinking about how secretary clinton, when she was candidate clinton, had to explain why she voted for the war and express her views on the war. candidates are now going to be explaining why they weren't for gay marriage earlier and who would have ever, i'm not criticizing her.

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i think it's a terrific development. but whoever would have thought that she would have been preempted on this, by rob portman? times have changed. >> times have changed indeed. and rapidly. and this was her endorsement was delivered via the human rights campaign headed by chad griffin. formerly an arkansasen and someone? the press office in the clinton white house years, we knew him in 1992. here's more from her statement, her video today. >> that's why i support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. i support it personally, and as a matter of policy and law. embedded in a broader effort to advance equality and opportunity for lgbt americans and all americans. to deny the opportunity to any of our daughters and sons, solely on the basis of who they are, and who they love is to deny them the chance to live up to their own god-given

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potential. >> one of the things that she said in this video that gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights, which is an echo of her famous declaration at the international women's conference in beijing back in '95. where she really stirred the fires in international diplomacy as first lady by declaring women's rights human rights. >> and that was controversial back then. that was seen as a sort of revolutionary statement, the state department was nervous that she said that. they didn't really want that to happen. i think we will be looking back ten, 20 years on the notion that gay rights are human rights and think, well, duh, the same way we think about women's rights now. >> a real generational change certainly in the republican party as we were reporting on friday. now cpac, i was glued to it, watching all weekend and the drama of the action with sarah palin, clearly a great performer. they -- >> did you bring your gulp. >> they gave her votes in the straw poll to rand paul and

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right behind him to marco rubio. but sarah palin taking on karl rove in a thinly-veiled jibe at rove and rove come back on fox news. >> if they feel that strongly about who gets to run in that party, then they should buck up or stay in the truck, buck up and run. the architects can head on back to -- they can head on back to the great lone star state and put their name on some ballot. >> if she can plan primaries other people can plan primaries. i don't think i'm a particularly good candidate, a balding foot phat guy and if i did run for office and win, i would serve out my term, i wouldn't leave office mid-term. >> ouch. >> is palin still a factor? she brought the crowd to their feet on saturday afternoon. >> i don't think she's a factor at all.

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i think she's just an amusing reality show to watch. >> she accused the president, she said that the white house is a reality show. this is a woman via mark burnett did her own reality show and she accused barack obama of having a reality show. >> she's got a tart approach and she gives a good show, reality or not reality. but i don't think she's a serious political factor in the republican party. and i have to say if i was going it take political advice from someone in that spat, it would be from karl rove and not from sarah palin. >> thank you very much. ruth marcus, i can't see you -- taking advice from either one. but to be continued. and meanwhile, the blame game, the republican party chairman, raince priebus took a thinly veiled shot at his predecessor in trying to explain what went wrong for the gop. >> for quite a while when we walked into the inc, both credit cards of the rnc were suspended. this is before i walked in.

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now just think about this for a second. if you got one of two of the biggest national political parties in the world, that has both credit cards suspended. >> are you saying that former chairman steele ruined the party or at least the rnc financially? >> i'm not going to go there. listen, i think the numbers speak for themselves. >> they speak for themselves. and joining me now is former republican chairman and current msnbc analyst, michael steele. michael, he took a real shot at you. he said basically that you bankrupted the rnc. maxed out the credit cards and that that was the problem and that's the blame game. >> and i won and he didn't. and the bottom line is -- >> you won in the elections -- >> i won in the elections, i had to win in 2009. christie and bob mcdonald in blue states. like new jersey, purple states like virginia. we laid down the ground game. national, 50-state strategy, we didn't have to go through the hoopla of press conferences, we

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just went out and did the heavy work of rebuilding the party. coming off of massive losses in 2006 and 2008. so raince is just being silly. i understand that, he wasn't complaining about debt and concern about debt when i was writing checks to wisconsin when he was chairman and wanted to win the state legislature, which they did. win the governorship, which they did. we focused both at the federal and the state level. and at the end of the day, the members were all on board about going into debt to win. now the rnc had a surplus, they had money in the bank at the end of the 2012 cycle. but they had nothing to show for it you lose eight house seats, you don't win the white house, when you should, that to me is more than enough evidence of what's wrong. there's no message, there's no focus -- calling this an autopsy, if you want to talk about branding? well that's some smart branding out of the box. the fact of the matter is, this isn't an autopsy, this is an examination of what you did wrong. where your leadership failed and how you get back on winning again after we had unprecedented

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wins in 2009 and 2010. we brought the tea party to the party, they've excluded the tea party what they did for example at the national convention, with rand paul and setting him on the side. someone who has a way to galvanize young voters, the young voice and bring it into the party. now you want to have a kumbayah around the country, that's great, that's wonderful. but it's going it take a little bit mr than just saying we're going to write a check and put some people out in the field. this is a bottom-up grassroots effort. you saw that at cpac. sarah palin, i disagree with your previous guest a little bit. sarah palin will still be a voice and a factor. because she resonates with that element in the party that is suspicious and not comfortable with the top-down philosophy. that we see coming out of the rnc right now. >> now, what do you think of their plan you know to shorten the primaries, fewer primaries, and earlier convention? does that make sense? >> it does.

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that's a process and those are things that the body will have to buy into ultimately. i think at the end of the day, though, you know, you can have a shortened process. but that's all going to be generated by the number of candidates who are in the primary. whether or not they want to have more debates, it's going to be up to them. the networks and the cable stations going to come to them to put on these debates. as we saw in 2012. they will accept or not accept the idea of moving the convention up. i think is smart and it's something that we talked about at the time for the next round. but again, you know, if you move it to june, that means you're shortening the primary process. effectively. and the candidates may have an issue with that and the grassroots may have an issue with that i think there's a little bit more vetting that will have to be done here that involves a state party leadership to see exactly how the realignments will occur with the various states and that push you know to be the first primary or the first caucus state so we'll see how that plays out. >> now you have marco rubio and rand paul competing for the

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heart and soul in terms of rand paul coming number one in the straw poll. just behind him, marco rubio. very different speeches. which do you think is the better way forward for the republican party? >> i think both are. i think they both really sort of speak to the aspirational part of the party in terms of our connection with voters out there. i think at the end of the day for me, rand paul really spoke to the nature, the core nature of the gop from its founding. that libertarian root that says, it's about the individual responsibility, individual freedoms and opportunities. and i think that that translates very powerfully in the communities that we need to be speaking to. when we're talking about economic empowerment and ownership. when we're talking about the ability to educate your kid as you define, as you decide as a parent. those types of things really speaks to that much more than anything else in my view. >> michael steele, thank you very much.

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>> good to be with you. >> thanks for joining us and speaking back. >> and next, the president's trip to israel -- can he mend a strained relationship? and still ahead, proof of citizenship. the supreme court takes up arizona's voter i.d. law today. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. i'm a conservative investor. but that doesn't mean i don't want to make money. i love making money. i try to be smart with my investments. i also try to keep my costs down. what's your plan? ishares. low cost and tax efficient. find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. which shirt feels more expensive? i get to touch these guys? oooh, ooh la la. i'm feeling their muscles. yup, yup. -that one. -that one's softer. actually, it's the same t-shirt. really?

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president obama leaves tomorrow for his first visit to israel, the west bank and jordan. first visit during his presidency. trying to repair a fractious relationship with prime minister netanyahu, at a time when israel is feeling encircled by a civil war in syria and a potential threat from iran. joining me is a former spokesman for the national security council in the obama administration and aaron david miller, fellow at the woodrow wilson international center. welcome, both.

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first, tommy, why did it take so long for this president to get to israel? he had a lot on his plate there were enormous economic challenges to deal with back home. but not every president going to israel in his first term, george bush didn't. this is great opportunity for the president to sync up with prime minister netanyahu on iran, sir yarks the critical issues of the region where israel is in the eye of the storm. he can also speak directly to the israeli people, via a speech to a bunch of university students. >> aaron david miller, you were a middle east negotiator in a number of white houses and state departments, republican and democratic. what, how much syncing up with prime minister netanyahu do you think is going to take place, realistically? >> it's smart politics, it's smart policy, too. obama has got the most dysfunctional relationship with any israeli prime minister in the history of the u.s./israeli relationship. now benjamin netanyahu bears an

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enormous amount of the responsibility for that. if this president doesn't want to be the president on whose watch iran gets a nuclear weapon and the two-state solution expires, he's simply going to have to figure out a way to work with netanyahu and the new government and that, that new start, i don't like the word reset. but that new relationship begins this week. >> but at the same time, tommy, when the president was asked by israeli television about his relationship with netanyahu, he described it as business-like. he didn't say my good friend, he didn't try to sugar-coat it, frankly. i think anyone who has seen the pictures of them together over the years knows it's not a cozy relationship. >> well you know -- >> it's a strategic alliance. >> right. aaron can tell you, bebe netanyahu is not a warm and fuzzy guy, i don't think he needs to be. they've got be a lot done together. they've spent more time one-on-one the president has with almost any other leader. but if you look at the record of

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us supporting israeli security, we're talking $3 billion a year to help them maintain a military presence in the region, hundreds more to fund an iron dome defense system to protect israelis from rockets coming out of hamas or southern lebanon. so they're in lock step on a number of key issues there have been these dust ups along the way. but i think those are the exception to the rule, which is a very functional u.s./israel relationship. >> are we at a stage now, aaron, where there is no longer as much pressure regionally to do something about the israeli/palestinian negotiations because there is so much of a crisis atmosphere given what's happening on the border of all of these countries, the relationship with egypt, the morsi government, the war in syria and the revolutions and the arab spring have created a completely new context. >> it's very true, the region is as broken, angry and

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dysfunctional as i've ever seen it. most of it is not the fault of this president. but the reality is this israeli/palestinian issue still resonates. it's the one issue that emotionally, ideologically, politically, still unite as dysfunctional and divided arab world. the problem the president has, i'll sum it up very clearly -- the two-state solution right now is too complicated to implement. and yet, it's too important to abandon and it's within that space, i think that barack obama, secretary kerry, the israelis, mahmoud abbas, are going to try to operate. but as barack obama knows, no president ever lost money betting against this issue and he may not, either. >> and then there's iran, to say nothing of complicated problems. it's very clear from the president's signals in recent days and his interview with israeli television, there's a different notion in the united states. we saw this in the threat assessment testimony last week from the intelligence community. the intelligence community here believes that there's a year at

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least a year before iran is closing that window of vulnerability. the danger point, the red zone. israel has a very different sense of where the red doan starts and when. >> i think when you look at what the president said, he said a year from iran making a decision to pursue, to break out, they could have a bomb. that's a complicated process that involves enrichment, weaponization, a number of processes to get them to a place where they could deliver a nuclear payload. the u.s. and israel have the exact same sets of data about iran's nuclear program. are in lock step on an intelligence perspective. the difference is geography and the threat that each perceive to their country. and that's where i think you get into different points of view and i think that's understandable given that we have a an ocean between us and iran and israel doesn't. >> aaron are they going to have disagreements on the timelines

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in the next couple of days or they going to try gloss that over. >> you you're not going to see any public disagreement. reason for the president to go to israel is not to continue the dysfunctional relationship, but to create a new basis on which to cooperate. the farther you go on the iranian issue, the more complex it's going to be. the israelis do not want to act unilaterally. barack obama doesn't want to go to war with iran. the question is this, if in fact some diplomacy succeeds in producing an agreement, will the united states be able to sell it to the israelis? that's where tommy is actually, absolutely right. where you stand on this issue has a lot to do with where you sit. you live in chevy chase maryland? you have one perspective. you live in downtown jerusalem or tel aviv, you have another. >> just today, secretary kerry was meeting with the australian foreign minister, talking about other countries, including our closest allies, france and great britain, pressuring the u.s. to do more to help and arm the syrian rebels.

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>> we do not stand, president obama has made it clear, that the united states does not stand in the way of other countries that made a decision to provide arms, whether it's france or britain or others. he believes that we need to change president assad's calculation. >> there has been disagreement in the past in, within the cabinet. we now know that hillary clinton and the c.i.a. director and others wanted some, and the defense team as well, leon panetta, wanted to arm the rebels. the president is still dead set against that. we don't know where secretary kerry comes down. is this an issue where the president is going to have to move under pressure from allies? >> i think this is an issue that the people at the white house wrestle with every single day. the human cost of assad's actions are horrific. and we struggle with the human toll and hearing these stories from the region, about innocent people that are suffering.

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so what the president has done is rejected this notion that either we arm them or we're not supporting them. there's been enormous diplomatic effort put behind helping the opposition. there's been considerable money, hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian relief and nonlethal assistance to the opposition. we simply haven't taken a step towards a military intervention. that's because there are second and third-tier conventisequence that decision that are enormous. we're in the tenth-year anniversary to the iraq war and we have to remember that the consequences were far-reaching and 150,000 troops couldn't stop a sectarian war. so we'll continue to work on and think about ways to help the opposition. and the president has put a lot of effort behind this. >> nature abhors a vacuum and once you topple assad, what happens next. aaron, what do the president want to see in syria? >> the israelis, their agreement on the golan heights essentially becomes nonfunctional and you get penetration and cross-border

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attacks. and second, the israelis and we are worried about the using or losing of chemical weapons. the latter essentially would, i think the administration would have no choice but to accelerate and up the ante in syria with some sort of punitive military strike or some sort of intervention. i think the president's policy, caution has been extremely well deserved. the kinds of arms we're, we're prepared to provide to the rebels would fundamentally not change the military arc of this crisis. it's tragic, it may be considered cruel by some, but i think on balance, it's the right way to go. >> aaron david miller, thank you so much. tommy vietter, thank you, it's good to see you sitting at our table. join us wednesday and thursday live from israel a as we travel with president obama and secretary kerry to the region. coming up here, vetting the voters, the supreme court takes up arizona's controversial voter i.d. law. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] here's a word you should keep in mind. unbiased.

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in the headlines today on "andrea mitchell reports," former university of oklahoma quarterback, steven davis is among the dead after a private jet crashed into a south bend, indiana neighborhood sunday. davis played for the sooners in the 1970s, when the team won back-to-back national titles. officials say stevens was flying from from tulsa when the pilot of the twin-engine beechcraft reported mechanical trouble. shortly before trying to land at south bend regional airport. high winds are hampering efforts and also to knock out a wildfire burning on pigeon forge, tennessee. so far 65 buildings have been damaged or destroyed. many of them cabin rentals in the popular tourist area. no reports of injuries. and classes resume at central florida university, where the bomb squad was called in overnight after police discovered an assault weapon and

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several explosive devices inside the dorm room of a student who had apparently committed suicide. more than 500 students were forced to evacuate while police and the fbi worked to remove the explosives. coming up next, the high-court showdown over arizona's voter i.d. law. what it could mean for elections across the country. after a week of digesting the red meat, how will republicans move forward. send me your thoughts on facebook and twitter at mitchellreports. [ kitt ] you know what's impressive? a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say? ♪

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[ female announcer ] from meeting customer needs... to meeting patient needs... ♪ wireless is limitless. [ female announcer ] from finding the best way... ♪ to finding the best catch... ♪ wireless is limitless. today the supreme court heard arguments in another pivotal voter i.d. case. voting rights groups in arizona have challenged the proposition 200, a law requiring state residents sho to show proof of u.s. citizenship when they register to vote. they believe the law unfairly targets minority voters.

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justice correspondent pete joins us with more. >> this is not the traditional voter i.d. law we've been talking about, which is voter i.d. at the polls. this is at the time of registration, a clash between arizona's law and the federal law, the motor voter law, which aalthoughs people to walk in or mail in a form when they go to get a driver's license. arizona wants you on the federal form, you check a form that says yes i'm a citizen and i do this under penalty of perjury. arizona says that isn't enough, they want you to show some proof of citizenship, your driver's license number, some sort of information. and the question is whether the state can do that or whether that violates the federal form. one of the justices said suppose somebody rides up on a bicycle looking 13, wearing a middle school t-shirt carrying school books and i want to register to vote and i certify i'm old enough, does the state have to register that person?

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that's what the court struggled with today. was yes, we understand there's a federal form, but what can the state do to confirm the information? the opponents of law say it's intended mainly to discourage naturalized citizens from voting. >> the justice actually spent very little time on that. and seemed to be more interested about how and why arizona is using the specific tactic it is to challenge this law. a one-word answer is, no, couldn't tell. >> joining us is maria theresa

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kumar and nina paralais, one of the litigants in the court argument. pete williams was saying there's no way to infer from the court argument, you were sitting at your counsel table. what was your impression? >> i thought that the justices really focused in on the key issues before the court. does the federal law, which mandates a simple post card for voter registration override the arizona law, which requires something very, very different. the attachment of personal documents, like birth certificates and copies of passports. the court was right where i think the issue is today. and asked some very difficult questions of arizona about whether state law must yield. >> nina, is there a possibility they could then say, just judging from what justice alito asked, you know, could some teenaged person looking like a middle schooler ride up on his bike and ask to register to vote

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and say yes, i'm a citizen. could they then challenge the federal law and say that's not adequate? how much leeway do they have based on this argument? >> the leeway is provided under the constitution, which he congress chooses to step in and regulate the national voter registration act. states must yield to that with respect to the hypothetical involving the boy on the bicycle what that perhaps doesn't recognize is all states take their voter registrants and run them through various databases to make sure they are who they are and driver's licenses and other databases. the question is what can be required of the applicant. of the individual at the time of the registration? congress says a simple post card. this certainly leaves the states free to do whatever checking they want to do on their own. >> maria theresa how is this targeting minority and largely latino voters?

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ha do you think arizona was trying to do? >> i think fundamentally basically it's trying to claim that there's voter fraud where there isn't. this is a law in search of a problem that doesn't exist. this has been done by numerous nonpartisan groups. what we find is that in the time when we should be modernizing our election system. when we should be inclusive of individuals to participate in the democratic process, a law like arizona hinders participation. what i mean by that is if you're a young person, the number one reason people in the united states don't register is they think that the process is too complicated. so an organization like mine, we go into arizona and we basically go to where the voter is and we register them to vote. how many voters do you think are walking around with their birth certificates or naturalization papers. >> 0 or if you're a married woman. how many women have changed their birth certificate to reflect their married name. it's almost as if the folks are talking through both sides of their mouth. all of these people proposing

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this legislation happen to be republican legislators. at a time when the rnc says it wants to spend $10 billion for minority outreach. but at the same time prevent voter registration. even in a country like south africa where they've had a history like apartheid. they have higher voter registration numbers than the united states. so there's clearly a problem and the state law is hindering our participation in the democratic process. >> do you see the state law as another example of the kind of voter suppression that was attempted in the states around the country? >> well, the impact of the arizona law is definitely to stop the future. which is that it's, it's preventing voter registration from tens of thousands of eligible u.s. citizens. the court record shows that over 31,000 people were rejected for voter registration in the first two and a half years of the law. and they reflected broadly the demographics of arizona, most were not latino, most were born in the united states. it's had a broad

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disenfranchising effect. in that way it's similar to other laws that prevent people from participating. >> maria theresa, do you see other states trying to imitate arizona, or will this test, if arizona loses the test put an end to this? >> you have states such as georgia and texas encouraging the passage of this law and one of the folks, they helped file the law with the supreme court in support of it. so what i actually, what my fear is if you look at the states that are supporting the arizona law, not surprisingly you have a boom in young voters, a boom in african-american voters and a boom in latino voters, instead of trying to engage this demographic, they're scratching their heads, like we're trying to hold back the future and let's make sure these folks don't participate in our democracy and that's not good for anyone. >> maria theresa and nina, thank you very much. big day for you with the supreme court argument. we hope you'll come when the decision comes down. and next, foreign power, experts on what to expect during the president's trip to israel.

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president obama leaves tomorrow for his first trip to israel as president and the white house is already lowering expectations for this trip. and joining me now is the elizabeth boomer, washington bureau chief for "the new york times" and the "u.s.a. today" washington bureau chief and "washington post" editorial writer, ruth marcus, back with us. >> elizabeth now you're the deputy washington bureau chief of the "new york times," congratulations on that. you were the pentagon correspondent, you've covered the state department and the white house you've done it all. here you've got a president going to israel for the first time as president. and that's not unprecedented. ronald reagan never went two terms, george w. bush took the tail end of his second term. but there has been a difficult relationship with netanyahu. and he goes at a time when the whole region is in turmoil. >> you're right, they're

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lowering, the white house is lowering expectations, the trip is largely to offset the 2009 trip that president obama took to cairo. where he made a speech to cairo and then did not go to israel, went on to buchenwald, talked about the holocaust, but missed the beginnings of israel. this is a chance to kind of, i don't want to say make it right. but to reach out to israelis in a way he hasn't before. he's not speaking at the knesset. he's speaking to young israelis at a convention center, he's doing things differently at this time. >> and what's the significance of him going to the weitzman statue. this was the leader of zionism. and that's anathema to many people in the arab world, but a way of saying i stand with israel. to israel it's important because it predates the holocaust. by centuries. millennium, it says that

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israelis have a right to be in that world. >> so that elizabeth says it's part of building a bond with israelis and the israeli government that's been at times unhappy with the president, i don't see how they can lower expectations for this trip, frankly. because expectations could not be lower than they. the white house has made it clear from the start there's not going to be progress or a big initiative in terms of an israeli/palestinian peace and i think we're looking at the prospect of something that could be a real point of conflict and that's over the timetable on iran's nuclear program and when military action might appropriately be triggered. because the difference between the israeli leaders and the president on that issue seems to be getting wider, not narrower. >> and people like king abdullah in jordan, who are faced with on their own border, well first of all, the refugees from syria. the conflict in egypt which is hardly resolved. and the what is happening in iraq which is not good outcome.

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iran has greater and greater influence on the al maliki government and then trouble down the road in other parts of the region. >> this is always a difficult region. american presidents never go with high expectations for trips. this is just a festival of problems. all of which seem either insoluble or impossible to deal with. the reason for the trip isn't to solve any of them, but just to be there, to check off something that's been on the presidential to-do list, and turned into kind of a should have done. i would like to say having been there last summer, i'm excited that the president is seeing petra in jordan which is remarkable. i've been trying to lobby andrea to find a way to go, it's stunning. >> i want to say it's a way for the u.s. to say we have israel's back. the president is going to see

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the iron dome you know system, the israeli defense system. one of the first things he's going to see. that was largely paid for by the united states. so there is that, that we have israel's back. >> what about the timelines regarding iran? in covering the pentagon and foreign policy. elizabeth, you know we have a different u.s. officials have a different notion of when we reach that danger point. the testimony last week was that the ayatollah has still not made the political decision to proceed with nuclear weapons. there's not that same sense at all in israel. >> i feel like i've been talking about this for years. the different timelines. but yes, there's still a different timeline that the u.s., i think the last thing the president said was about a year, israel thinks it's sooner than that. the reality is that israel is going to be in a very difficult position to do a strike itself. we've been through that many times it doesn't have the same capabilities the united states

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does and the united states is it going to wait until the last possible minute there was a lot of fighting last fall as you remember, about the president not being strong enough, against on iran. that has died down. there's a new israeli government and it's a little bit more moderate. so we're still in the same place. >> and at the same time, the president is going to the middle east, you have arguably a much more dangerous, volatile situation in north korea. where you have nuclear weapons, the long-range missiles and we're putting missile defenses in alaska because they're now realizing that north korea with this young leader who is completely bellicose in his rhetoric -- >> and you've got dennis rodman, who is able to negotiate with him. >> everybody should feel calm about that.

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>> unlike israel, i don't think united states has a sense of how to deal with north korea in an effective way. and of course of great alarm to south korea which is sitting there just -- >> with a newly elected president in the last couple of days. the north korean leader, kim jong un went even beyond what he had done before in using sexist, demeaning, colloquial language about the first female president of south korea who was just inaugurated. he seems to want to spark controversy there. and hamid karzai, the constellation of problems that the president faces in foreign policy. afghanistan, a huge problem with karzai behaving in such a way that it's going to inflame congress, if not the white house. it's awfully hard to keep saying well he's got domestic political problems. he is the -- he's the leader we have to deal with. but it's not going well. >> all of this is an

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illustration of it feels like it's particularly second-term issues with presidents. it's always something and no matter how much they want to sort of set out an agenda of the things that they want to finish up with their the world has this nasty tendency to intrude. and there were so many different multiple possibilities for headaches, all of which we're talking about. >> just the very fact that he is leaving for this trip is still going to get a lot of attention. and if he can repair the dang with israel, so be it. thank you very much. what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." s. da. for the little mishaps you feel use neosporin to help you heal. it kills germs so you heal four days faster. neosporin. use with band-aid brand bandages. only hertz gives you a carfirmation.

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor and "washington post" editorial columnist, jonathan cape hart joins me now. you're looking south toward

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south carolina. good to see you. >> reporter: good to see you too. tomorrow is the big special election to fill the seat vacated by now senator tim scott. there are two democrats running two run in the may 7th election. but there are 16 republicans running for the gop spot for the may 7th election. one of them is mark sanford, the former governor of south carolina. the person who once held that seat. and also in that race is teddy turner, the son of the billionaire founder of the other cable channel, cable news channel out there. and again, if neither one, or no one in that gop primary gets 50%, there is a special. then there is a run-off and that takes place on april 2nd. >> and on the democratic side, you've got stephen colbert. >> his hastert.

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elizabeth colbert bush. different pronunciation, same family. looking at the republican side, tell me that mark san ford didn't get his former wife to be his campaign manager. >> it was out there but that did not take place. that did not happen. but mark sanford is the leading gop contender. >> no comment on that. jonathan capehart, thank you very much. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." and i'll be traveling. join us this wednesday and thursday live from israel as we travel to cover president obama and secretary kerry in the middle east. remember to follow the show online and on twitter @mitchell reports. and craig melvin has a look at what's next. >> safe travels to you by the way. in the next hour, more of the gop autopsy as more of the minority outreach, better technology, short he primary season and fewer debates. are all those things the answer

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for when republicans win back the white house? or are the policies holding us back? also the search for the missing teacher. we'll talk to her mother and sister about the massive effort to bring her home. all of that and lots more coming up right now on "news nation." this day calls you. to fight chronic osteoarthritis pain. to fight chronic low back pain. to take action. to take the next step. today, you will know you did something for your pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a pain reliever fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. anti-depressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not for children under 18. people taking maois, linezolid or thioridazine or with

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